Could the Dominion War have been avoided?

The Jem'Hadar that beamed onto DS9 at the end of "The Jem'Hadar" warned Sisko, et al to stay on their side of the wormhole. Now, I'm sure that there's plenty of the alpha and beta quadrants that's unexplored, why not avoid the gamma quadrant altogether and avert hostilities? I do know that starfleet is all about exploring, but at the cost of starting a war? I don't see them encroaching on Romulan space in order to explore.

What if China told everyone in the world, "Stay out of the Pacific Ocean, or there will be war.", or what if India said, "Don't sail the Indian Ocean, it's ours, so if you enter it we will go to war!". Would it be realistic and acceptable for the rest of the world to just stop sailing in the Pacific and/or Indian Oceans based on a threat like that? Because that's what the Dominion did. The wormhole didn't open up in orbit of their capital, you know. It took over a year before the Alpha Quadrant powers even directly encountered the Dominion. For the Dominion to claim the entire Gamma Quadrant is just as unreasonable and unrealistic.

No. The Founders were already preparing to take on the Federation in ~70 years time and without Odo, there was no dissenting perspective to their (apparently) species wide xenophobia and paranoia.

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I don't recall this, is it canon?

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The Founders mention that they weren't expecting the Federation for around another 70 years in The Search, Part II.

As for the Founders being paranoid xenophobes, just watch any episode featuring them after The Search and before the series finale.

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It isn't canon. What you are probably remembering is that the Founders didn't expect Odo back for something like 300 years. The idea that the Dominion knew about the Federation prior to the wormhole and expected to contact them much later then they did was an idea that never made it to the screen

This is from MA:

One idea that the writers had that was never actively utilized on-screen was that the Dominion knew about the Federation long before the Bajoran wormhole was discovered, and that they were developing a long-term strategy to deal with the inevitable contact. As Wolfe explains, "The Dominion knew the Federation was out there long before the wormhole was opened, and they had plans to deal with the Federation when the Federation was projected to enter their space in two hundred years, and they were building slowly towards that, that's why they sent out Odo in the first place. But then the wormhole opens up and suddenly the Federation is in their backyard today and it just throws everything into question for both the Federation and the Dominion." (The Birth of the Dominion and Beyond, DS9 Season 3 DVD special features)

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Given we saw a Federation probe deep in the Delta Quadrant and what happened to the likes of Voyager it isn't hard to believe that a piece of Federation found its way to the Dominion.

As for the war, it was avoidable at least for the medium term by collapsing the wormhole. The Federation did try but they were sabotaged. Not using the wormhole wouldn't have prevented the war. Really if the Dominion was serious about that threat they would have actively blockaded the wormhole instead of doing nothing.

Ship’s Log: In direct violation of the Prime Directive and Starfleet Procedure, not to mention the demands of the Dominion that we stay the hell out of their space, I’ve taken the Defiant on a survey mission into the Gamma Quadrant.

How has no one mentioned The Visitor?! In that, we're explicitly shown a timeline where if Sisko were to disappear circa Series 4, the Dominion War never happened up and Jadzia was still alive by the time Jake was an old man.

So? Does that make the war explicitly Sisko's fault? Without him around, different decisions were made, different at all levels, from tactical to political. But Sisko didn't make the Dominion an aggressive power. In "The Visitor" timeline, the Dominion war may only have been postponed.

How has no one mentioned The Visitor?! In that, we're explicitly shown a timeline where if Sisko were to disappear circa Series 4, the Dominion War never happened up and Jadzia was still alive by the time Jake was an old man.

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At best you can say the Jadzia gets to live a long life, but given how restrictive our view into the timeline we can't be sure that there wasn't a Dominion War or two or even three given that there was what 50 - 60 years of that timeline.

The only way I think the Federation prevents war from the Dominion is by unifying the powers of the Alpha/Beta Quadrant prior to the conflict instead of during it. Obviously this is easier said than done given the nature of distrusting species like the Romulans and a proud military state like Cardassia. I think a unified constant guard assigned to Deep Space Nine patrolling the vicinity of the wormhole could have deferred the war. Sustaining that unified effort would probably be unrealistic though.

It still seems kind of silly, though, how they left their side of the wormhole so lightly defended, even when they knew how aggressive Dominion was being.

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The AQ terminus of the wormhole was far more highly defended than the GQ terminus, considering the far side of the wormhole opened up nowhere near Dominion space. Remember, it took a couple years for the Dominion to really notice the AQ traffic entering their neighborhood. It wasn't like the wormhole opened up in their backyard. The Dominion had no reason to bar traffic through the wormhole, since it wasn't in their territory.

Again, telling the Federation to stay on their side of the wormhole and out of the GQ would be like China telling the US to stay out of the Pacific - an unrealistic and unreasonable request meant to provoke and provide a cause for hostilities.

I think you mis-remember (though correct me if I do). War was thrust upon the Federation and the Alpha quadrant. As the result of a stable wormhole the Gamma and Alpha quads became within reach of one another and it was the Changelings who, out of fear, ordered first strikes and started the war.

I am generally against unilateralism as either valid policy or explaination. It's on par with blaming the victim for being raped.